Biological science student and antarctic researchers shipped out this past winter to the wilds of the Antarctic in pursuit of rare and valuable data as part of the bi-annual SeaScience Expedition. The Antarctic is a place ...

A nearly complete Leptobos brevicornis mandible from the Early Pleistocene of Longdan locality in Gansu Province, northwestern China was described by LI Yikun, one of Ph.D. students from Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology ...

Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have updated the Horizontal Wind Model (HWM) that describes the climate of the upper atmospheric neutral winds. This improved empirical tool will help scientists as they ...

A first of its kind study that modeled oil slick weathering over time in a laboratory setting provides evidence that evaporation combined with sinking of the heavy components of surface-spill slicks can explain the presence ...

The integration of data from two or more domains is required for addressing many fundamental scientific questions and understanding how to mitigate challenges impacting humanity and our planet, according to a new workshop ...

Science

Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge") refers to any systematic knowledge-base or prescriptive practice that is capable of resulting in a prediction or predictable type of outcome. In this sense, science may refer to a highly skilled technique or practice.

In its more restricted contemporary sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method, and to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word. Science as discussed in this article is sometimes called experimental science to differentiate it from applied science—the application of scientific research to specific human needs—although the two are often interconnected.

Science is a continuing effort to discover and increase human knowledge and understanding through disciplined research. Using controlled methods, scientists collect observable evidence of natural or social phenomena, record measurable data relating to the observations, and analyze this information to construct theoretical explanations of how things work. The methods of scientific research include the generation of hypotheses about how phenomena work, and experimentation that tests these hypotheses under controlled conditions. Scientists are also expected to publish their information so other scientists can do similar experiments to double-check their conclusions. The results of this process enable better understanding of past events, and better ability to predict future events of the same kind as those that have been tested.